HOUSTON -- Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says he gives himself an A-minus job rating after six years as the top cop in Texas’s largest city.
Hurtt has announced his resignation, effective Dec. 30, just a few days before Mayor-elect Annise Parker takes over from departing Mayor Bill White.
Hurtt has been the police chief for almost six years.
Parker had said throughout her campaign that she would fire
Hurtt and replace him with someone within the Houston Police Department. She has said she wanted to "shake up" the department by increasing reliance on technology and decentralizing police work.
Hurtt told reporters Thursday that his biggest accomplishments were reducing the crime rate and issuing Tasers to all officers. Hurtt said the 2008 crime rate for Houston was the lowest it had been in 20 years. Houston crime rates saw a sharp rise in 2005 after the city took in more than 100,000 refugees from Hurricane Katrina.
